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Because Brown is on short-term IR, he is not eligible to come back to the team until after Week 8, and since the Giants have a bye week in Week 9, the first week Brown would be able to play if healthy would be Week 10, so the need for another running back comes into play.

"But I've heard they've spoken to the agents of Ryan Grant, Kevin Smith, among others. A vet likely wouldn't be signed until Week 2," he tweeted.

From the way Vacchiano made it sound, the Giants will simply go with the three running backs on the roster for the time being with David Wilson getting the bulk of the carries and either Da'Rel Scott or Michael Cox getting worked in as the change-of-pace back when they play the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1 on Sunday night's season opener.

"I was told not to rule out RB Tim Hightower at some point, either. Giants worked him out this spring. They don't bring in guys for no reason," he tweeted.

Along with Grant, Smith and Hightower, the two running backs that fans continue to bring up for the Giants are Michael Turner and Brandon Jacobs, who are both still available on the free agent market and unsigned.

Grant was a member of the Giants during the 2005 and 2006 season, but was traded to the Green Bay Packers before the 2007 season for a sixth-round draft pick because the Giants had so much depth at running back and felt Grant was expendable. Grant has spent the last six years with the Packers and split the 2012 season with Green Bay and the Washington Redskins. Grant has rushed for 4,148 yards and 27 touchdowns in his six seasons as a pro.

Smith has been with the Detroit Lions for the last five seasons and had two solid seasons in 2008 and 2009, but was hit hard by injuries since then. Hightower showed a lot of promise coming up with the Arizona Cardinals and Washington Redskins, but hasn't played since the 2011 season after being cut during the last moments of the preseason by Washington.

11 Responses to “New York Giants Have Spoken with Agents of Ryan Grant, Kevin Smith: Report”

Would LOVE to see my boy Kevin Smith get a shot with the NYG. Was a huge fan when he was here, met him a few times and really wanted us to draft him a few years back. He was very sold for Detroit whn they called on him last year. Really nice kid too

I’m not a big fan of his but honestly I prefer Torrain over all these mentioned RBs maybe save for Wells. These guys we are looking at have horrible injury history and little of being better than decent except Wells. Dywer seems like such a no brainer considering the other options. He got cut because of work ethic so it would seem that he would be more serious this time around. I’m really surprised he’s still a free agent.

Cox won’t be trusted on passing downs, at least early we know that. But I think he can fill in as the short yardage RB. He’s almost as big as Brown and from what I saw he looks like a good inside runner. It’s not that I don’t think Wilson can be successful but short yardage is even more pounding for a RB we NEED to stay healthy. So short yardage is one area that I think Cox is as good or better and we can save some pounding on Wilson. Or we can sign a free agent RB for the same reasons. The idea is we have to use Wilson smartly so he can last the year. With Brown hurt he went from a 13-15 carry per game guy to a 18-20 carry per game now.

Scott pass blocked pretty well in pre-season don’t rule him out. He is a big back with speed and if healthy and doesn’t go down the 1st time he is hit he can be better than Grant who maybe on his last legs.